Miss Evelyn Graves has never had a holiday. She is much too busy as the personal secretary to the Countess of Waverly. But the Duke of Ballymore Castle in Connemara, Ireland, has invited the countess to visit—and as the countess cannot travel, she has insisted Evelyn go in her stead. Except when Evie arrives, everyone mistakes her for the countess—and it’s clear the family who owns crumbling Ballymore were hoping to match the widowed countess with Alexander Pierpont, Duke of Rennick. Though Alex knows the truth of Evie’s identity, he has an unusual request. He’ll happily show her hospitality if she’ll agree to let others think she’s the countess during her visit.
There’s just one problem: as time runs out on their arrangement and Alex increasingly fears he must in fact marry an heiress to save his family’s fortunes, he finds that his heart now belongs to Miss Evie Graves…and he can’t bring himself to let her go.
Release Date: Apr 22, 2023
Series: Love on Holiday
Book: 3
Heat Level: Sensual
Publisher: HarperCollins
Imprint: Avon
Price: $6.99
Dueling Reviews
Tropes: Road Trip, Forced Proximity, Class Difference, Working Heroine
Miss Evelyn Graves works as personal secretary to the Countess of Waverly. She is sent in her employer’s stead to Ballymore Castle in Connemara, Ireland, believing that she would be assisting with planning a fundraiser for an equestrian society. But little does Evie know that the aunt of her host – Alexander Pierpont, Duke of Rennick – is scheming to marry Alex to the countess!
This is the third book in the Love on Holiday series. It stands alone and is only connected to the others by theme. Just like the previous stories, this book was low angst with warm-fuzzy feels. These characters met by chance once before, so there is already an attraction between them. The previous Duke’s will states that Alex must marry in a certain time period, otherwise his mother’s unentailed family property will pass to his uncle. His pushy (but not mean-spirited) aunt is not happy to receive Evie instead of her employer, but Alex’s siblings join in the family mix and can see Evie and Alex’s connection.
I’ve found this entire series to be so enjoyable…perfect for beach reading or curling up on a lazy day. This book would be great for fans of Julia Quinn, Cathy Maxwell, and Charis Michaels.
~ Leslie
“The memory of the man she’d met in the garden and her experience with the one who’d locked her in his study with him were so incongruent that she still couldn’t merge them in her mind. The two versions of the duke were like mismatched puzzle pieces. Or perhaps she was just too weary to put all the aspects of the distractingly handsome man together in her mind.”
Miss Evelyn Graves works as a personal secretary for the Countess of Waverley. She is sent to Ireland to assist the Duke of Rennick with a charity function in place of the countess, but what she doesn’t know is that his scheming aunt is planning on matchmaking the countess and Alexander. Everyone is shocked when Evelyn shows up in her place, especially Alexander, after they had a chance meeting months ago that he can’t stop thinking about.
Christy Carlyle’s Love on Holiday series is extremely low angst, and I think when I read this that maybe I wasn’t in the mood for it. If something is low angst, there isn’t much to push the plot forward, and that can make the story drag on and on. This did just that. She tried to add some plot devices like Alexander’s money issues and a scheming uncle, but neither was developed enough to frankly contribute anything to the story. They felt more like an afterthought. I also think there wasn’t much truly keeping Alexander and Evelyn from being together by the end. I expected more internal conflict from Alexander about his money struggles and her being a poor secretary, and how his home was at risk due to his lack of funds. I expected to see him fighting his desire for her much more than he did.
At the end, they decide that love is more important than anything else, but I struggled with that since it left me with more questions than answers. Even the epilogue left much to be desired. Overall, this one felt slower and less romantic than the first two books in the series.
If you’re a fan of low-angst historical romance writers like Anna Bennett and Erica Ridley then this series may be for you.
~ Michelle
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